Year 5

Learning Outcomes

LIT6.2 I can read and listen to literary texts such as poetry,

prose and drama being performed or read aloud and
show my understanding by answering questions about
the text.

LIT6.3 I can respond to poems, stories, prose and drama by

speaking and writing about how I feel about the literary
texts and about the events, characters or themes in
these texts.

LIT6.4 I can identify and respond to the use of literary devices

and elements in literary texts.

LIT6.5 I can participate in activities based on poems, stories

and plays I have read or listened to.
 Theme: Food and Drink
Learning Outcomes: LIT6.2, LIT6.5
Language Structure: present tense
Vocabulary: setting, characters, props, scenery, scenario, domestic situation,
improvise, vacuum flask, gasps with horror, a shame, shriek
Language Function: to instruct
Resources: picnic picture, ‘The Lost Ring’ notes, playscript writing frame, props
(e.g. ring, picnic basket, cutlery, plates, sandwiches, waste bin,
apron, blanket/tablecloth, table, food containers)

Pre-Task:
• Show a picture of a picnic scene. Ask: What can you see in the picture? What are they doing? How
did they prepare for this activity? What do you think they are going to do now?
• Pre-teach vocabulary.

Main Task:
• Hand out the notes.
• On the whiteboard/IWB write: Who are the characters in the story? What is the setting of the story?
What is the family doing at the beginning of Scene 1? What is the family doing at the end of Scene
1? How do you think Mum is feeling? What do you think happened to the ring?
• Learners read the notes and Scene 1 only. Elicit answers from the learners
• Ask What happens in Scene 2? How is Mum feeling now? Elicit answers from the learners.
• Group learners into groups of 4/5. Learners choose roles.
• Hand out the playscript writing frame. Go through the writing frame together. In groups, learners
write a playscript for Scenes 1 and 2. Then, they rehearse both scenes and act them out in front of
the class.

Post-task:
Carry out an informal survey in class. Ask: Which performance did you like the most? Why? Learners
share their opinions and feelings.
Taken from: https://www.lux-review.com/how-to-host-the-perfect-family-picnic/
 The Lost Ring

Setting
A kitchen in a family house and a picnic site.

Characters
Mum, Dad, several children

Scenery and props

table, tablecloth, items for a picnic such as vacuum flask, cups, plates,
sandwich boxes, food, a large picnic bag, a ring, a waste bin, chairs

Scene 1
Dad is at the table, cutting sandwiches. Mum is washing fruit at the sink. The
children are all helping to pack a picnic bag. As they work, they chat to one
another about what they are doing (Pass me the butter. How many cups do we
need?) and about where they will go for the picnic (Into the countryside? Off
to the seaside? Up the hill?).
When the picnic bag is packed, Mum gasps with horror. She has lost her ring.
She took it off to wash the fruit and now it has disappeared. A search begins
and the children turn out the bin, shake the tablecloth, look under the chairs,
and so on, but the ring is not found. At last Mum says that they must start the
picnic without it. She will look for it later.

Scene 2
Everyone is sitting on the ground, with the picnic set out on the cloth. They
start eating and drinking. They are enjoying themselves, but keep mentioning
the ring (Where can it be? What a shame Mum has lost it.). Then one child
gives a shriek. She has bitten something hard. The ring is inside her sandwich!

Hazel Townson

Adapted from Drama and Short Plays compiled by Alan Brown

 Playscript Writing Frame

Title: ____________________________________

Characters:
_________________
_________________
_________________
_________________
_________________

Setting the scene

Scene 1
(______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________)

Stage directions Dialogue

_______: (_________)_____________________________________
_______________________________________________
Characters

_______: _______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
 Theme: School and Education/Personal Feelings and Emotions
Learning Outcomes: LIT6.2, LIT6.3, LIT6.5
Language Structure: imperative
Vocabulary: actions done in class
Language Function: to instruct/to narrate
Resources: picture of a classroom, poem ‘Please Mrs Butler’, worksheet, audio
with poem (https://childrens.poetryarchive.org/teach/resources/allan-ahlberg-
please-mrs-butler/)

Pre-Task:
• Show picture of a classroom. Ask: How is this classroom similar to our classroom? How is it different
from our classroom? What are the learners doing?
• Pre-teach classroom related action words (e.g. think, spell, give, study, read, cut, experiment,
observe, listen, play, sing, say, draw, count, calculate, open, close, paint, show, explain, ask …).

Main Task:
• Hand out the poem. Ask: What is the poem about? Who is talking?
• Learners read the poem. Elicit answers.
• Write another set of questions for the learners to read and answer after the second reading.
List the things Derek Drew does in class. What advice does Mrs Butler give to the speaker? What pet
names does Mrs Butler use for the speaker? How do you think is the speaker feeling? Why? How do
you think is Mrs Butler feeling? Why?
• Learners read the text and look for the answers. Elicit answers.
• Learner listen to the audio of the poem.
• Learners read the poem.
• Ask learners to think of annoying situations that occur in class. Write them down. Discuss with the
learners what actions can be carried out in order to tackle these situations.
• Learners work out a worksheet.

Post-Task:
Pair learners. One learner takes the role of Mrs Butler and the other the role of the speaker. Pairs act
out the poem in front of their classmates. Pairs invert roles.
Taken from: https://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/10/education/grouping-students-by-ability-regains-favor-with-educators.html
 Please Mrs Butler
Allan Ahlberg

Please Mrs Butler

This boy Derek Drew
Keeps copying my work, Miss.
What shall I do?

Go and sit in the hall, dear.

Go and sit in the sink.
Take your books on the roof, my lamb.
Do whatever you think.

Please Mrs Butler

This boy Derek Drew
Keeps taking my rubber, Miss.
What shall I do?

Keep it in your hand, dear.

Hide it up your vest.
Swallow it if you like, my love.
Do what you think is best.

Please Mrs. Butler

This boy Derek Drew
Keeps calling me rude names, Miss.
What shall I do?

Lock yourself in the cupboard, dear.

Run away to sea.
Do whatever you can, my flower.
But don’t ask me!
 Please Mrs Butler

1. List 3 things that Derek Drew does in class.

a. _______________________________________________________

b.________________________________________________________

c. ________________________________________________________

2. Which are the 3 pet names Mrs Butler uses with the speaker?

a. _______________ b._______________ c._______________

3. The poet uses exaggeration several times. Copy 2 phrases where the poet
is exaggerating.

a._____________________________________________________

b. _____________________________________________________

4. Think of 1 more annoying action, Derek Drew could have done in class.
Come up with 3 advices Mrs Butler would have given.
Use this information to fill in the missing spaces in these two stanzas.

Please Mrs Butler

This boy Derek Drew
________________________, Miss.
What shall I do?

________________________, dear.
_____________________________.
__________________, my________.
But don’t ask me.
 Theme: Transport/Jobs
Learning Outcomes: LIT6.2, LIT6.4, LIT6.5
Language Structure: past tense
Vocabulary: rumbling, grumbling, worn out, gears, exhausted, conductor, fares.
shrinking, plumb, poked, mumbled, moaned, muttered, stabbed,
saggy-baggy, limp, spanner, scrap-heap, geranium, shrieked
Language Function: to narrate
Resources: ‘Guess what am I?’ handout, ‘What we need is a new bus’ handout
and worksheet, ‘Retell the Story’ worksheet

Pre-Task:
• Learners play a ‘Guess what am I?’ game with modes of transport.
• After you write the learners’ guesses on the board, sort them out into different categories such as
wheels/no wheels, air/water/land. Elicit from learners other means of transport not mentioned
during the game.
• Pre-teach vocabulary.

Main Task:
• Hand out the story and the questions. Tell learners to read the title and look at the picture. Ask
What do you think the story is about? Elicit answers.
• On whiteboard/IW write a question for learners to answer after reading the story. What is the
story about?
• Learners read the story. Elicit answers.
• Write further questions. Pair learners. How does the author describe the bus in paragraph 1? The
driver said the bus was ‘worn out’. Did the bus feel the same? Find examples. What sound did the
bus make? What did the conductor do? What happened during the journey? How did the mechanic
carry the bus to his garage? What did the mechanics do to the bus? Were the people looking
forward to ride the bus at the end of the story? How can you tell? Can you think of another suitable
title for this story?
• Elicit answers from the pairs.
• Explain how the author uses sentences and phrases such as ‘Now the bus wasn’t surprised to hear
this. It did feel worn out… All it wanted to do was sleep in the sun forever…’, to give the bus
human feelings, behaviours and thoughts. Have learners identify and circle other parts in the
story where the author uses personification.
• Beam up the ‘Retell the Story’ worksheet on the IWB. Elicit the information from the learners to
fill it in.

Post-Task:
Individually, learners work out a worksheet.
 Guess what am I?

1. I am very big. I carry lots of people. I sail on the sea.

2. I am big. I carry lots of passengers. I run on a railway track.
3. I fly in the sky. I can hover. I have a propeller on top.
4. I fly in the sky. I have wings. I carry passengers to other countries.
5. I have a siren. I have a ladder. I have fire extinguishers. I help people when there
are fires.
6. I have a siren. I have flashing lights. I take sick people to hospitals.
7. I am small. I have two wheels. I need to be pedalled to go.
8. I use petrol, diesel or electric. I have four wheels. Lots of people drive me around.
9. I sometimes have an upstairs. I have wheels. I take passengers to different places.

Other means of transport:

tow truck, lorry, tractor, police car, limousine, steam train, sail boat, yacht, cruise ship,
cargo ship, hot air balloon, zeppelin, motor bike, taxi, penny farthing …
 Retell the Story

Title:

Characters (who):

Setting (when and where):

Problem (why):

Events (what): Beginning:

Middle:

Ending:

Resolution (how):
 What we need is a new bus

Not so long ago an old red bus ran down to the station and back again. It was
a rumbling-grumbling bus. It was a rusty-dusty bus. It was a jumping-bumping
bus. And because it was all of these things some people walked to the station
rather than ride in the old bus. It shook them about too much.

‘The trouble with this old bus,’ the driver said, ‘is that it’s worn out. It needs a
new engine to drive it. It needs new tyres to run on. It needs new seats, new
windows, new paint, new everything. In fact what we need is a new bus!’

Now the bus wasn’t surprised to hear this. It did feel worn out. It was worn
out. Climbing the hills made its engine work so hard it went slower and slower
and slower. Changing gears all the time made it feel exhausted. All it wanted
to do was sleep in the sun forever.

‘Ur, ur, ur!’ it grumbled. It didn’t want to go another wheel turn.

Inside the bus the conductor was calling out, ‘Fares please! Fares! Fares,
please!’ He sold pink tickets from his book to the passengers, and their money
dropped into his big black bag with a tinkling plink, plink, plink.

And inside the bus the driver was in his seat in front of the big steering wheel.
He pushed the gear lever into place. He pulled off the brake and before it knew
what was happening the old red bus was rolling down the road again.
‘Urr-uuuuur-urrrr-urrrrr!’ It grumbled. It mumbled. It groaned. ‘Grrrr!’ It was
as if it couldn’t go another wheel turn. And to its surprise the old red bus didn’t.

Sssssss!

The front tyre was shrinking smaller and smaller. Sssssssss! What was
happening to the plump round sides? Ssssssss! Air hissed out. The tyre was as
flat as a piece of paper.

The driver stopped the bus. Out he jumped. Out jumped the bus conductor.
People poked their heads from their windows.

‘The front tyre is as flat as a pancake,’ the driver told them. ‘We can’t fix it
here. You’d better walk to the station.’

‘We’d better get the mechanic from the garage,’ said the conductor. ‘We could
be here for hours,’ he told the people. ‘Yes, you’d better off walking to the
station.’

Now the people grumbled and mumbled and groaned and moaned and walked
to the station. ‘What we need is a new bus,’ they muttered and some of them
stopped to look at the flat tyre that had run over a big nail. It had stabbed a
hole in the tyre’s tube. Ssssss! Out hissed the air until the tyre, no longer flat
and round looked saggy-baggy, as flat as flat. A sad, limp tyre.

When, at last, the mechanic came roaring up in his truck he tapped the old red
bus with a spanner and said, ‘This old crate needs more than a new tyre.’

‘I know, I know,’ agreed the bus driver. ‘What we need is a new bus. When can
you sell us one?’

‘Not today,’ the mechanic shook his head. He banged and tapped and looked at
the insides of the bus and said nothing for a long time. Then he said, ‘In a
couple of weeks we could make this old bus almost as good as new, up at the
garage.’
Now that was a good idea. A wonderful idea, especially for the old bus. It
helped as much as it could when the tow-truck came. There was a crane on the
back of the tow-truck and it lifted the front wheels of the bus away, away off
the ground. With just its two back wheels the old red bus ran along behind the
tow-truck to the garage.

And when some people saw the old red bus being towed away they decided that
it must be going to the scrap-heap. Where else could it go? ‘Looks as if we’ll
get a new bus after all,’ they told each other.

At the garage, mechanics took out the worn parts of the engine and put in new
ones. They oiled and greased. They fitted new tyres and new seats. They
repainted and repainted the old bus a sparking red, a shiny red, a geranium
red. It didn’t look like an old bus. It didn’t feel like an old bus. It felt like
running a thousand miles or two – up hills, down hills and along lumpy, bumpy
roads.

When the time came for the old red bus to drive along the road to the station
everyone wanted a ride. They crowded in. Some people sat and some people
had to stand. The bus was loaded but up the hill it went without a grumble and
rumble, just a little gr-grr-grrr which was like a happy humming song. ‘This
isn’t bad for our old red bus!’ said the conductor with a grin.

‘Not our old rumbling, grumbling bus!’ shrieked someone. ‘This can’t be our old,
dusty, rusty bus! Don’t tell me that this is the bumpy, jumpy, worn-out old bus!’

It was, and we know that it was, don’t we?

Jean Chapman

Adapted from Five-minutes Stories by J Eccleshare

1. What journey did the bus take?

2. People preferred walking to the station rather than riding the bus. Why?

________________________________________________________

3. a. What made the bus go slower? ____________________________

b. What made the bus feel exhausted? ____________________________

4. Underline the phrase which describes the sound the money made when it
dropped in the conductor’s bag.

5. Copy the 2 similes which describe the tyre.

a. _________________________ b._________________________

6. Why did the mechanic say, ‘This old crate needs more than a new tyre’?

________________________________________________________

7. How did the mechanics improve the old red bus?

________________________________________________________

8. a. When the bus returned to the station the people felt ______________.

b. Give a reason why.

________________________________________________________

9. Underline the correct answer. Who is the narrator of the story?

a. the mechanic b. the bus c. the author

10. What part surprised you the most about the story? Why?

________________________________________________________
 Theme: Feasts and Celebrations/Space Travel
Learning Outcomes: LIT6.2, LIT6.3, LIT 6.5
Language Structure: punctuation
Vocabulary: gosh, getting out of hand, stirring up some kind of trouble, child
psychology, practical jokes, give it all up, trampled, start again from
scratch, very disturbed, stunned
Language Function: to inform
Resources: playscript ‘April Fool’, drama success criteria, diary entry worksheet

Pre-Task:
• Write 1st of April on the board. Ask learners What happens on the 1st of April?
• Share some basic information about April Fool (It happens every year on the 1st of April. It is a time to play
practical jokes on others. Some believe it started in 1582 when the present calendar was introduced. Some people didn’t
get the message and kept celebrating New Year on the 1 st of April. They were considered fools. Others believe April Fool’s
started with the ancient Romans. The Romans held spring festivals called ‘Hilaria’ which were full of merriment. Newspapers
and TV shows play tricks on their readers and viewers. In 1957, BBC aired a short fake film about spaghetti trees in Italy.
Many people believed spaghetti grew on trees and wanted to know how to grow them at home. In Scotland, if someone plays
a trick on you, you are called an April Gowk which means a cuckoo or foolish person. In France, children stick paper fish to
the back of adults and run away laughing.)
• Pre-teach vocabulary.

Main-task:
• Hand out the script and ask learners ‘Is the text a poem, a story or a play? How do you know?’ Elicit
from learners the features of the script.
• Elicit from learners the success criteria that make a good performance. Write them down on
whiteboard/IWB. Hand out the Drama Success Criteria worksheet. Compare the elicited criteria
with the ones listed on the worksheet.
• Ask: What is the play about? Who are the characters? What is the setting? What happens at the
end of the play? What do we learn from this story?
• Learners read the script. Elicit answers from learners.
• Ask learners to choose their role and to justify their choice.
• Learners act out the play. Then, they complete the Success Criteria worksheet.

Post-Task:
Individually, learners fill in a diary entry for the character they were playing in the play. In the diary
entry they narrate and describe the events of the day (e.g. the raisin joke, the aliens’ visit... ).
 April Fool

Setting
The Hooper kitchen
Characters
Mum, Dad, Tom, Jenny, three space aliens
Scenery and props
kitchen table, empty cereal packets, bowls, spoons, glasses, mugs, book
Production notes
The Hoopers can all wear normal clothes. The visiting space creatures can wear
anything unusual.

(Tom is sitting at the breakfast table, eating cereal. He isn’t paying attention to
the cereal because he’s absorbed in a book.)

Jenny: (enters) Morning, Tom.

Tom: Morning, Jen.

Jenny: Gosh, that cereal looks good.

Tom: (hardly listening) Uh-huh.

Jenny: But what’s that funny thing on your spoon?

Tom: (still reading his book) What funny thing? (swallows the spoonful)
What are you talking about?

Jenny: Oh, no! It was a fly! You ate a fly!

Tom: What? Help! Mum! Dad! I swallowed a fly!

Mum: (enters with Dad) Now, Tom, don’t worry. When you were little, you ate
much stranger things. One tiny fly won’t hurt.

Dad: You’ll live.

Tom: I’m going to be sick.

Jenny: (trying to keep from laughing) Oh, Tom. It wasn’t a fly. It was a raisin.
April fool! (laughs and runs out of the back door)

Mum: Honestly, I don’t know what we’re going to do about that child. Jenny’s
stories are getting out of hand. She’s always stirring up some kind of
trouble, April Fools’ Day or not.

Dad: I’ve been reading about this in a book on child psychology. It says the
best cure is to agree with everything the child says.

Mum: But why on earth should we do that?

Dad: If you refuse to get upset or excited about the practical jokes – the child
will get tired of the game and give it all up.

Mum: I’m not sure it would work with Jenny, but let’s try.

Tom: Count me in!

Jenny: (enters out of breath) Mum! Dad! Tom! Guess what?

Mum: (calmly) What, Jenny?

Jenny: A UFO has just landed in our garden!

Dad: (calmly) What a shame! There go the daffodils.

Jenny: Didn’t you hear what I said?

Mum: (begins to clear the breakfast dishes calmly) Of course we did, Jenny.
You said an UFO landed in our garden.

Dad: And I suppose it trampled the tulips, too.

Jenny: Of course it trampled the tulips. Now what’ll we do?

Mum: We’ll simply have to start again from scratch.

Tom: Just as soon as the UFO takes off.

Dad: Jenny, did they tell you when they were planning to leave?

Jenny: (very disturbed) I didn’t talk to anybody. I came running in the minute I
saw it.

Mum: That’s good, dear. You should never talk to strangers.

Jenny: Shouldn’t we call the police?

Dad: The police? Now why would they care about our garden?

Tom: If they’re not in a hurry, Jenny could invite them to breakfast.

Dad: That’s a great idea.

(Jenny throws up her hands and exits.)

Dad: (laughing) See I told you it would work.

Tom: Hey, Dad, this psychology stuff really works!

Mum: (looking out of the window) Oh my goodness. (stunned) Jenny has just
invited three space aliens to breakfast.

(Dad and Tom look out of the window.)

Tom: Gosh, Dad, what are we going to do?

Dad: Set out some more food for our(pauses) guests?

(Three visitors from outer space enter, sit at the table, and begin eating the
cereal. Mum, Dad and Tom look stunned.)

Jenny: (enters smiling) This is the best April Fools’ Day I’ve ever had. And all I
had to do was tell the truth!

Dennis Andersen

Adapted from Drama and Short Plays compiled by Alan Brown

 Drama Success Criteria

Did I …

look at the audience?

speak loudly and clearly?

use the correct vocal expression?

act my character all the time?

use props?

use suitable facial expressions?

follow stage directions?

take turns?

use the right body gestures?

You are Dad/Mum/Tom/Jenny/an alien. Write a diary entry to describe the
events that happened during breakfast. In your diary entry, include what
happened after all the characters met inside the kitchen.

(Use the past tense. Use the first person ‘I’, Describe your point of view, feelings
and thoughts.)

Write the date.

__________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________